Between Unsure and a Hundred
by Wolf-of-Words
Summary: Onesentence challenge. A study of five travelers.


A/N: Another onesentence challenge, set Gamma this time. (You get 50 one-word prompts, and you write a sentence for each prompt-- and only one sentence.) This is my first contriubution to the Tsubasa fandom, so I'm a tad apprehensive about posting this. But here it is anyway. Working on this for a while, and to celebrate the (pivital and _heart-breaking_) 16th volume released in English, I thought I'd let it go. xD

Warning: **Spoilers from 120. **Read no further if you don't know the whole Acid!Tokyo situation. (However hard to avoid they are.)

The themes have been re-ordered so that they make some coherent sense, otherwise it'd be just a jumbled timeline. -Guilty laugh- 1 takes place pre-series, and sequential order from there, including the start of the journey, Acid!Tokyo, and onwards (though it's not so much plot from after Tokyo than vague references, because I'm a good girl and am waiting for the lastest books (xD)). For reference: "Syaoran" is C!Syaoran, and "_Syaoran"_ is R!Syaoran.

-

**:1. **

- MoTioN:

Sakura moved with the fluidity that should come with being a princess, but it was her stumbles and frantic gestures that made Syaoran smile the most.

- GHoST:

Sometimes, when she was small, Sakura would get lost in the great Kingdom of Clow, and they're would always be those shadowy oh-so-helpful people to help her find her way back home, and she'd be ever-so-grateful, but they looked so sad (just like a certain little boy's amber eyes, and she couldn't get those ghostly orbs out of her mind).

- WALL:

His heart was a tower built of cards; his shield an impenetrable domino wall, but with one soft touch, Princess Sakura knocked them both down, and the domino effect rippled throughout his soul until he was left with nothing but toys that Syaoran neither knew how to or wished to rebuild, and he let the warmth seep in.

- SAFE:

Before this all began, Fai was locked up in his cold castle, maybe not happy, maybe not content, but _there_; Kurogane battled monsters and enemies in his own temple, victorious almost always; Syaoran preoccupied long days with books and ruins; and Sakura contemplated her fate within thick castle walls, safe (but only for a spilt-second in time, and the this façade of _safety_ split wide open).

**:2. **

- WRoNG:

It was awful that Sakura had to forget, but it was torture for Syaoran to remember.

- YoUNG:

Syaoran was young, and so was Sakura, but they had given up innocent childhood-- Syaoran because he was broken, and Sakura because she simply couldn't remember.

- SUDDEN:

With three words, the world slowed, and suddenly he knew-- he knew he would never the same in her heart again, and what had started in the rain in front of the Space-Time Witch also ended in the rain, and he couldn't tell if the liquid running down his face was tears or just the sky falling (_who are you?_)

**:3. **

- BLUr:

Syaoran's memories from when he was young are not much more than a blur-- bandages, sore, aching muscles, red, a mirror-- and Syaoran thinks how awful it would be if all his memories were that muddled and confused (or worse, absent).

- SHADoW:

In his dreams, Syaoran is a shadow, and he's soldered at the heart to his reflection, and no matter how hard he tries, Syaoran cannot see the face of the boy casting his shadow.

- CoMMAND:

Kurogane could throw commands out, and so could Syaoran, to an extent, but Fai's were always requests, and Sakura could not bring herself to ask something of these three strangers who have sacrificed so much already for her sake.

- ATTENTioN:

"Listen, Listen!" Mokona would cry, and the group's nerves were all immediately on edge, and then the creature would laugh and bounce happily into Fai's lap or Syaoran's shoulder, content with the fact that it had a place within the group.

- BooK:

Fai picked up the book of fairytales, a dusty tome sitting forgotten on the table, flipped open to a page and read aloud from it, one word at a time, and Sakura slept peacefully.

- CHiLD:

"Kuro-papa," says Fai, and shoves Syaoran into him playfully, "don't you think it's time for some father-son bonding?" and Papa grumbles but ruffles the boy's hair, and Syaoran gives a shy little smile.

- NEED:

There were things he _needed_-- food, water, shelter-- and there were things he _didn't _need -- the Mage, the Pork-Bun, the Kid, the Princess-- but they made the travels a little less lonely, and Kurogane could not think of what he would be without them.

- HiDE:

Fai took cover from the explosion, and with the fiery hot winds subsided, he poked his head up and whistled, "Ooo...Kuro-pipi's gonna have my hide for this..."

- DriVE:

There was an impulse, a reflex almost, to protect; for Kurogane, it was what it was, and he had never known anything else.

- KiNG:

Mokona folds a paper crown-- clumsily, a long-forgotten skill-- and places it on Syaoran's head, declaring, "When Sakura is queen, Syaoran will be her king!", and Syaoran's blush almost rivals the tint of alcohol-red in his companion's faces.

- CooL:

If Kurogane was the icy cool water, and Fai was the wind that teased you with its gentle nature, and Syaoran was the blaze of fire in your heart, then Princess Sakura was the wood that anchored them all, or perhaps, the metal of nuts and bolts and knobs that _welded_ them tight.

- TorN:

Clothes torn, bleeding sometimes, maybe a limp, but always victorious-- that was how Sakura received her feathers from the worlds, handed to her gently by friends, and it broke her heart sometimes.

- PrECioUS:

For a very very long time, Yuuko was the only person in Mokona's world, but now Mokona's world is Fai and Kurogane and Syaoran and Sakura, and Mokona does Mokona's best to make them all smile, because they are all very precious to Mokona.

- BoTHEr:

Kurogane grabbed the pork-bun by his ears, and as it wailed, the ninja growled something about how bothersome it was, and set it squarely a top his head anyway.

- ONE:

"There's only one bed," grumbles Kuro-woof and moments later, he regrets saying anything at all, finding himself buried beneath all the travelers on the bed as Fai plants himself on _daddy_, cradling flustered daughter in his lap, and son pulled close, the mage smiling away.

- VISIoN:

Syaoran's vision would falter, and on those occasions where his memory lapsed, his vision would give out completely, and his body would work around a world viewed by one blind eye.

- SiNG:

They went to a bar one night, looking for clues to find the feather, and the singer that evening was especially lovely (curves and a pretty voice and little else, grumbled Kurogane), and Sakura found herself humming to the song soon after they left, and in time it became a raucous sailor song, with even Kurogane grumbling in the words after some jovial persuasion from the mage, but Syaoran just smiled something lonely.

- PiCTUrE:

He held up his fingers, thumb and pointer, and made a frame, boxing in the princess, laughing truly, the wizard, smiling genuinely for once, the ninja, his anger off-set by the corners of his mouth twitching upwards, and the creature, bouncing happily, and in his mind, he went _clic_k (like those pretty things they call cameras) and hoped he could keep the image in his head forever.

- HArM:

He lashed out with a powerful kick, sending his opponent flying before he could even land a finger on Sakura or the white creature sitting astonished on her shoulder-- Syaoran was her _guardian_ and he would let no harm come to her as long as he was in his right mind.

- NoW:

"Now," says Fai, and he brings up a tea kettle full of piping hot water for tea and whatever else might've quenched the traveler's thirsts and warmed their bodies, "it's nice just to relax once in a while, don't you think?"

- TiME:

Once, the travelers were asked _How long have you been travelling together?,_ and they looked to each other confused, and they couldn't tell how long time had been at their heels-- too much, or perhaps too little.

- SoUL:

If Kurogane's soul was red-- the color of war and battle-- and Fai's was blue (the cold winter ice of his home world and his own frozen expression), then the Princess' was pink, the color of blissful innocence, and Syaoran's was white-- because it wasn't a color at all, but the absence of color entirely.

- GoD:

If there was a God-- a great generous and benevolent God, like the people of this world believed in-- then He would've saved Sakura a long time ago (the pure spirit that she was),_ and_ the mage, and maybe even bestowed some great power upon the ninja, but He didn't (and Syaoran never understood the concept of God, anyway).

- THoUSAND:

It was a thousand feathers through, and a thousand left to go, a thousand nicknames for Kuro-woof, a thousand lies and fake smiles for Fai, and a thousand regrets and consequential moments of blinding hope for Syaoran.

**:4. **

- GooDBYE:

_Goodbye_ was a word that they all tried to avoid using; people always came back, even if they weren't the same person...

- CHANGE:

Fai could feel it, and so could Kurogane, from what he said, and, in the mage's experience, so could Mokona-- the children, however, knew not of Fai's transformation, and he wouldn't have had it any other way.

-SToP:

He floated there, weak, powerless to stop it; it was going to happen, already happened, but when would the world just stop spinning? and then something in Syaoran broke, and then the world slid to the floor and shattered.

- LAST:

Syaoran's last thought was nothing important, but his last _memory _before he faded away, into the clutches of chilled heartlessness, was of Sakura, one sunny evening in the Kingdom of Clow, and her smile cast maybe a little light before it all went out.

- MAD:

Kurogane roared, and his vision turned as red as the blood seeping from Fai's wounds, and the blood on Syaoran's face.

- EYE:

They're really quite tasty, if you have the right palate.

-NAKED:

The amber eyes that shone with optimism, deepened with rage, or glowed with fear lay blank now, stripped of all emotion and feeling, one blue eye penetrating the princess with the bitterly cold winter of apathy.

**:5. **

-LEArN:

Sakura was seeing the world again, completely a new, everything from scratch, but there were things she would've rather not had to remember (_betrayal and pain and hurt and now she knew them all too well)_.

-HiSTory:

The clone enjoyed history; it was how he was brought up, with his half heart, surrounded by it everywhere-- the original, however, held much contempt for the subject, as it had a way of repeating itself.

- WASH:

The puddle was cool as Fai splashed the water on his face, washing the blood, and as he pulled away and the ripples settled, all he saw was his reflection and the red from his life blood seeping into the ground.

- HoLD:

She shivered violently, and _Syaoran_ wanted nothing more than to hold her and give his warmth to her, but then Fai draped an arm around the Princess, and she looked up thankfully at the one-eyed mage, and _Syaoran _slumped back, into his own cold, and he guessed it was better that way.

- NEVEr:

_Never_, he shivers, though it's not cold-- something has chilled the core of him, and the reasons why slip through Syaoran's unfeeling hands (and it was never supposed to be this way).

-WAiT:

"Waiting is the hardest part-- just _waiting_ for something," _Syaoran_ says, an utterance on a whim, and Sakura looks up at him strangely, and he wonders if he said something wrong, so instead he puts on his bravest face.

-HUNGEr:

Their stomachs protested movement loudly, almost in unison, and interdimensional travelers though they might've been, they were still human, no matter what state their humanity was in.

- GENTLE:

_Syaoran_ whispers in the dark, on a restless night, shivering-- a promise to himself, a spell, (_everything is going to be alright)_, and everyone heard it, though he had meant for no one to.

- PoWEr:

The magic flowed in his veins, and when _Syaoran_ leased his magic on the world, Fai's own blood pined, but he knew he couldn't-- his and _Syaoran's _powers were entirely different beasts.

- ForTUNE:

"I can tell you your future," says the old lady, and _Syaoran_ wonders if the Dimension-Witch has look-alikes, too, but the question still hangs in the air, and _Syaoran _says, "I would rather not think about it."

-FooL:

Fei Wong Reed smiled devilishly into his seeing-mirror, swirling his blood-red wine, and chuckles to himself as he watches the travelers scramble to find the one feather in the world that will save them.

-BELiEVE:

_His _eyes say "trust me", and it's hard to do so soon after carefully-earned trust and companionship had been so easily dashed onto the floor, but _he_ gives them that same pained almost-hopeful look his other used all-too-often, and bonds forged under the desperation to believe bridged the travelers and their almost-companion, and they nodded-- daring to hope, daring once again to hold belief close in their hearts.

- - - - -


End file.
